


First Snow

by Purplehuntress3



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Snow, mentions of ep 26, soft, they happened in this but he came back!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 11:16:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17140766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purplehuntress3/pseuds/Purplehuntress3
Summary: Caleb does not remember his first snow.He was an autumn child, born after the leaves first started to coat the ground. His first snow was spent in a bundle in his mother's arm, stood by the window as she watched the snowfall, waiting for her husband to return.Mollymauk does not remember his first snow.Four months old, curled up in the back of a circus tent, all he remembers is cold.(Their first snows, all throughout their relationship)





	First Snow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Yngvildr the Voracious (Yngvildr_the_Voracious)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yngvildr_the_Voracious/gifts).



> this is my exchanged gift for the widomauk discord! happy holidays darling!

Caleb does not remember his first snow. 

He was an autumn child, born after the leaves first started to coat the ground. His first snow was spent in a bundle in his mother's arm, stood by the window as she watched the snowfall, waiting for her husband to return.

The first snow he remembers, he is 4. In so many layers he can barely move his arms and legs, he runs out the door and immediately falls face first into the snow. He hears his father laugh behind him, a deep belly one as he scoops him up off the ground. His mother locks the door and Caleb notices the two of them are wearing as many layers as he is. The clothes aren’t true winter clothes, but they are wearing enough trousers on top of each other to act like them. He is carried into the town, where everyone is gathering. The older children have started a snowball fight, and are forced to apologise when they accidentally hit old man Ester with a stray one. He can’t remember Ester’s exact voice, but he does remember the exact way he waves his walking stick as the children flee. He remembers the Mayor, a stocky dwarven man, and how he tripped into a snow bank and when he came up his beard was more snow than hair. And he remembers how happy everyone was, and he remembers how cold it all was.

These days, Caleb loves the snow. It is cold. It is as far from fire as you can get.

~~~

Mollymauk does not remember his first snow. 

Four months old, curled up in the back of a circus tent, all he remembers is  _ cold.  _

He remembers the year after when they travelled North for winter. The other’s found it nothing special, nothing more than an annoyance- it was hard to travel through the snow with all the carts. But he and Toya  _ adored  _ it. She taught him everything- how to make snow angels, how to make a snowball (which he, of course, immediately threw at Bo starting an all-out war with only one victor, Orna, who melted everything). He used to love snow.

These days, when he thinks of snow, he remembers the snow falling around Lorenzo’s face, the cone of cold that killed those people. The glaive. Crawling out of another grave, surrounded by snow.

He doesn’t like snow much anymore. 

~~~

Their first snow as a couple happened in Zadash. 

The sun had set, but it was not really late, and the two were leaving Pumat’s with a large stack of paper and ink and a few extra healing potions. What they had was new, technically. They had known the other had been interested for months, but they both agreed it would be best to wait for Caleb to get into a better mental state for a relationship. And with the death of Trent last month, they both settled into something more. Soft kisses when no one was looking (and yet, Jester always knew), holding hands under the table, sharing a bed. They weren’t keeping what they had a secret, the others knew, it's just that Caleb was a private person, and Molly wanted to do whatever made his boyfriend happy. 

Caleb had been so wrapped up in everything they’d bought he hadn’t noticed when it started snowing; he only noticed when Molly left his side to stand in the middle of the street. Stood in the slow snowfall he twirled, coat flying behind him as the snowflakes got caught in his hair, making it shine in the light almost as much as the jewels in his horns did, before they melted. The way Molly stopped and smiled at him made his heart stop, and he crossed the street towards him. 

“Enjoying yourself, Mister Mollymauk?” He asked as he brought the tiefling into his arms.

“Much more now, Mister Caleb,” He replied, before bringing the ma into a kiss. 

~~~

Their first snow in their own home was an unexpected one. 

Living in Nicodranas was  _ amazing _ . The sun, the sea, the fact it was hot enough that Caleb walked around shirtless occasionally and Molly got a beautiful view of his boyfriend half naked wondering around the house. But it also meant it was warm all year round; no winter storms curled up together in bed and hide from, no snuggling up in front of the fire away from the snow, nothing  _ happy  _ to remind Molly of the good things about winter. 

But one night a large cloud cover blew down from the mountains, and the entire of the city looked like something from one of Jester’s more child-friendly books. 

Caleb was not a morning person by any means; Molly has learnt it usually takes one or two cups of coffee to even get the man thinking straight. But that morning, when Molly opened the curtains and said, _ Dearest, I think it snowed  _ Caleb jumped out of bed and tripped into his clothes. And he means literally tripped. Those tight trousers were a trap. 

Caleb smiled much more these days, but Molly hasn’t seen him grin so much as he did as he barreled out into the snow, bringing Frumpkin (who looked less so happy about it) with him. It wasn’t high, barely a few inches, but once the wizard was out in it children flocked to him, asking him about it and  _ was it you, mister Widogast? Did you bring the snow?  _ Molly watched from the window as he taught the children how to make a snowman. 

_ It will be the biggest!  _ He heard his boyfriend cry, and he decided to make some hot chocolate, for when Caleb comes back complaining because he forgot to wear gloves. 

~~~

It snowed on the first day of their honeymoon. 

Technically they were still on their way to their destination: Molly had wanted  _ heat _ , and not the warmer climates of the Menagerie coast, he wanted the  _ desert.  _ So Caleb had arranged for the two of them to spend a few weeks in the Bay of Gifts; two weeks of hot sun and sea while surrounded by historical landmarks that Caleb can find shelter in. It was perfect for them. It meant a very, very long journey from Nicodranas, but they did not mind. 

_ “Hey,” Molly said the night before they left, “maybe this time I’ll get to be a pirate.” _

_ “And may the seas run in fear if you do,” Caleb replied.  _

Molly woke up on their first day of travelling to find everything cold and he wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed with his  _ husband _ \- gods, it still felt weird to say that- but he found that said husband was missing from their bed.

Wrapping himself in as many blankets and scarves as he could find, he stumbled out the cabin and up the stairs to the main deck. It took him a second to open, something blocking the other side, and as he did he-

Was hit in the face with a snowball.

He heard the faint sounds of laughter and giggling but could not see the source due to the  _ snow _ in his  _ eyes.  _ He tried to shake it off, not wanting to pull his hands out of the blankets, and was somewhat successful. But as he did one of the giggles got closer, and he felt Caleb’s hands on his cheeks, brushing away the remainder of the snow. 

“I am so sorry, Liebling,” he said with a laugh. “One of the crew had a target on the back of the door and I- well I did not see you coming.” Molly got a better look out on the deck now and noticed a thin layer of snow had coated everything. A rather badly built snowman was in the corner, the area around it barren of snow, and he watched as two of the crewmen were decorating it. As the ship tilted slightly the snowman slid slowly towards the edge, but the two were quickly able to save their work. There was also a barren spot surrounding the mast of the ship, where two other crewmen were currently bent over laughing. Caleb shot them a stern glare and the two quickly stopped, returning to whatever they had been doing before. 

Molly unfolded one end of his blanket wrap and threw it around Caleb’s shoulder; it was awkward and didn’t reach all the way around, but it meant that Molly was able to pull him closer without exposing his hands to the cold. 

“I don’t know, darling, are you really sorry?” he said, “I guess if you  _ really  _ wanted to make it up to me, your going to have to come back to bed.” He shot Caleb a long and obvious wink, and he saw his husband roll his eyes at it.

Caleb tucked his hands inside Molly’s blankets, avoiding any bare skin, and pulled Molly close so their noses were touching. “And what are we to do in bed, Schatz?” 

“Oh I’m sure we’ll think of something, darling.” and with a yank, Molly was dragging them back towards their cabin.

~~~

They’d travelled north to Port Damali when Miriam saw her first snow. 

Fjord, though he lived alone, owned the biggest house; a beautiful cottage by the sea just outside the large port city. There was a room for every member, though there was usually rooms spare when people doubled up, and locks on every bedroom after one incident when Nott walked in on the girls “girl night” to complain that they hadn’t invited her. Yasha had been very embarrassed as Nott complained and ask to be blinded, but Molly had just been glad it wasn’t them. The attic had been converted into a teleportation circle, so it meant that no one had to take the long journey from where they were living, which Molly was especially happy about because he did not want to have to spend seven days trapped in a cart with a toddler, no matter how much he loved her. 

Though none of them really come from a place that celebrates Winter’s Crest, they had all picked up the holiday while they travelled in Tal’dorei. Usually, they all spent it separately but this year Fjord had invited everyone up to his place where there actually was snow. Miriam was so excited since she’d never truly seen it, her little tail wagging around behind her and occasionally hitting one of them. 

Each morning she’d run in, jumping up onto the bed and waking them up by kneeing something unpleasant, shouting “Has it snowed yet? Has it daddy?” so loudly she usually woke up Beau who would grumble past the open doorway, murmuring something about coffee. Then usually Caleb would pull himself out of bed towards the window, drawing open the curtains, and apologise softly to Miriam and tell her no snow had come last night. She’d sigh loudly, before flopping back onto the big bed and usually onto Molly, who would then dragged her into a hug. Caleb would close the door and then rejoin them in bed, and the three would lie together for another fifteen minutes or so before someone's stomach began to rumble and they would leave in search of whatever breakfast Caddy was cooking up. 

However, one morning was different. When Caleb opened the curtains and turned back around it wasn’t with an apology on his lips but with a smile, telling Miriam to run and get her warm clothes on, that Caddy and Jester have already beaten her outside. She  _ squealed _ , running out the room and barreling into Beau but she moved on like she hadn’t hit anything. Caleb closed the door so he could start pulling on his own winter clothes; big thick boots and a coat with wool on the inside. 

“Are you not coming, Schatz?” Molly hadn’t moved from where he was in the bed, and just gently shook his head. 

“You know me,” he spoke softly, “snow and I aren’t the best of friends.” A flash of memories came back, of a cart, of stolen friends, of a glaive, and pulling himself out of a frozen grave. But they faded just as quickly, the time between then and now meaning they are much duller now. Caleb just pressed a kiss to his head and ran out after their daughter. 

Molly planned on getting some extra sleep but found that without Caleb there he struggled to. He eventually pulled himself from the bed and to the window, where he found a magical sight.

Jester was pushing a ball of snow as she constantly packed it bigger, and he saw Miriam and Caleb with a slightly smaller one. Jester helped them lift the ball onto her’s and Nott, who had been hidden from his view, was lifted up so she could place an even smaller one on top of that. A top hat and a scarf were given to the snowman, and a long piece of celery (guess they were out of carrots) was used for its nose. With button eyes and coal for a mouth, the snowman was complete... and then ignored as Fjord hit Caleb in the back of the head with a snowball. 

Molly watched his family happy in the snow, and he thinks that though he will never like it as much as he once did, he will be able to enjoy it for the ones he loves. 

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos appreciated!  
> and a merry early Christmas and happy holidays to those that don't celebrate it


End file.
